Library Guides: Model African Union: The African Union

Overview of the African Union

Established in 2002, the African Union ("AU") is an inter-governmental organization dedicated to advancing the vision of an "integrated, prosperous and peaceful Africa." The AU consists of 55 Member States, representing all independent nations located on the African continent or its offshore islands.

The African Aspirations for 2063 Agenda highlights seven of the key objectives for the AU and its Member States in the coming years: peace and stability, food security, economic integration, enhanced human capacity, women's and youth empowerment, resource mobilization, effective communication, and increased institutional capacity.

Organs of the African Union

The African Union is organized into 11 organs, and a full listing of these organs can be viewed here. The following are some of the major organs responsible for the oversight and quasi-judicial activity of the AU:

Assembly of the Union	The AU's supreme organ that determines AU policy, establishes priorities, adopts the annual program, and monitors the implementation of policies and decisions. The Heads of State and Government for all Member States sit in the Assembly. The Assembly is mandated to accelerate the political and socio-economic integration of the African continent.
Executive Council	Comprised of foreign ministers from all Member States. Supports the AU Assembly by monitoring the implementation of Assembly policies. This organ also considers policy issues referred to it by the Assembly in the areas of foreign trade, energy, agriculture, health, and social security/disability.
Pan-African Parliament	Established by the 1991 Treaty Establishing the African Economic Community (Abuja Treaty). The long term goal for this organ is to exercise full legislative powers, but currently it exercises advisory and consultative powers.
African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights	The ACHPHR was established in 1987 to oversee and interpret the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights (known as the Banjul Charter). The Commission can only make recommendations and does not have the authority to enforce its interpretations.
African Court on Human and Peoples' Rights	AfCHPR was established in 1998 and has jurisdiction over all cases and disputes submitted to it concerning the interpretation and application of the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights. The Court can make binding decisions, including orders of compensation or reparation.

Locating African Union Documents

The African Union's (AU) primary source materials can be found on the international organization's website

Decisions and Declarations of the Assembly As a part of its mission to accelerate the political and socio-economic integration of the African continent, the AU Assembly is responsible for making decisions on the reports and recommendations from the other AU organs. These materials are memorialized during the biannual AU Summits and Extraordinary Summits, and decisions and declarations from 1963 to present day are available on the AU's website.
Decisions and Declarations of the Executive Council Much of the Executive Council's responsibilities are to make policy decisions on issues referred to the Member states and monitor the implementation of the Assembly's policies. Similar to the AU Assembly, the Executive Council meets biannually at both the AU Summit and the Extraordinary summit where they write down the substance of these discussions. The decisions and declarations from 1963 - present day are available on the AU's website.
OAU/AU Treaties, Conventions, Protocols & Charters A complete collection of the OAU/AU treaties, conventions, protocols, and charters are available on the AU website. As a helpful pointer, this website allows you to filter the results to treaties that specific countries have signed, deposited, or ratified.

About the African Union

Strengthening Popular Participation in the African Union The African Union (AU) has committed to a vision of Africa that is �integrated, prosperous and peaceful � driven by its own citizens, a dynamic force in the global arena� (Vision and Mission of the African Union, May 2004). This guide is an effort to take up the challenge of achieving this vision. It is a tool to assist activists to engage with AU policies and programmes. It describes the AU decision-making process and outlines the roles and responsibilities of the AU institutions. It also contains a sampling of the experiences of those non-governmental organisations (NGOs) that have interacted with the AU.
The African Union Legal and Institutional Framework: A manual on the Pan-African Organization This work is an introduction to the origins, law and institutions of the African Union (AU). It examines the evolution, structures, legal standards and operational activities of this Pan-African organization, which replaced the Organization of African Unity (OAU) 10 years ago. Although the AU came into being in 2001, so far there is no comprehensive work which addresses the institution, its organs and structures, the scope of its operations, its legal framework and the normative standards underpinning its objectives and functions or those underlying the conventions, charters and protocols it has enacted or inherited from its predecessor, the OAU. It is the aim of this work to fill that void. It has been conceived as a manual, and not as a scholarly treatise, so as to serve as a basic introduction to the institutional and legal framework of the AU and its affiliated organizations. It is meant to offer a concise and clear picture of the nature and workings of a continental institution aimed not only at promoting peace and unity in Africa but also at ensuring human security, development, human rights protection and good governance for the peoples of Africa.